Eureka Optima Lightweight Bagless Vacuum 431 Reviews

Uh, this stinks. I hate this vacuum.

Overall

Rated 2 out of 5

I received this vacuum three years ago as a wedding gift and honestly, I hate it. I guess it just isn't a heavy duty vacuum. Whatever the case is, when we lived in a rather dated house complete with the ugly orange shag carpet, this vacuum could barely move across the floor. I mean, I guess it would be because it is lightweight and the carpet was just super thick. It picked up like dust and stuff but the bigger stuff? forget it! 

If we hadn't gotten this as a gift I wouldn't have bought this for myself. However, I like the way it is easy to pull around even if it isn't that easy to use. The green is super cute and who doesn't like a great-looking vacuum? 

Definitely not worth it,...

Lows May Outweigh the Highs

Overall

Rated 3 out of 5

We bought this vacuum cleaner to replace an older Eureka bagged vacuum.  This is our first bagless, and even though my wife was skeptical about bagless, our primary concern was something lightweight with onboard tools that can still clean the different surfaces in our home sufficiently.  Not counting the basement, we have a 3-level home, one level with wall-wall carpeting and the other two are all hardwood floors (some with area rugs).

The Pros:  Lightweight, powerful, inexpensive.  This vacuum is super lightweight and compact.  We really like the collapsible handle.  The small size allows you to really manuever is easily around furniture.  It seems to be ...

Eureka Optima 431B is perfect for apartment living!

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

The Eureka Optima 431B has been a wonderful vacuum for our family. We got this 4 years ago and it is still going strong. I've always been impressed with how much it can do for being such a small vacuum.

This vacuum is light and has good suction. It's also small which is a huge perk to having a vacuum in an apartment. It is bag-less, and easy to empty, with replaceable filters. There is a dial for using either floor or hose features, as well as a switch that allows suction only, or suction with brush roll. There is a stair cleaning handle, and several height options for the main handle.

Because it is such a small vacuum, it cannot last as long as other vacuums and will stop running after about 1/2 an hour. Once it has a break, it's ready to go again. This vacuum is also not self propelled, so it is less than ideal on thicker carpets. The filter is a little difficult to clean, but it can be cleaned and used quite a bit. 

Eureka Vacuum Cleaner

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

My son bought me the Eureka Optima Vacuum Cleaner because I have knee problems and he thought it would be easier that the larger one I have. We have a small home with some carpet and some wood floors. I like the size and how easy it is to move to other places in the house because it is so lightweight. I am not especially crazy about not having a throw-away bag because I find it a mess to empty; I go outside when the weather permits to clean it and I use an old toothbrush to clean the filter. The cleaner has a top off/on switch so easy to reach. There is also a turn bar near the bottom to switch from the hose to floor suction. Nice suction and I think it does a good job. We do not have animals but when we do pet sit our daughter's Golden, the Optima does clean up the carpet nicely.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Eureka Optima vacuum!

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Eureka vacuum. The color sold me, but over the past 5 years I have come to love everything about this little vacuum. It has the sucking power of much larger vacuums, but it nice and small. I am just 5'4 and this vacuum is perfect. It sucks up things I never knew where there! The attachments are just what you need. I use it for my car too, it fits in all the little spots. Recently my toddlers have fallen in love with it, since the handle can move to a bunch of different heights, everyone in the family can use it. The only down side is that the cord is a little short, but will do at least one room at a time. I bought it when I lived in a small apartment, but now that I live in a larger house, I have to plug it into each room. Not that big of a deal, since I have to pick up each room before I can vacuum it anyways! The filters really keep the air clean and they are easy to clean after they fill up. Reasonable to buy more too! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Eureka optima 431 BX Good for a small space

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

This vacuum does not dig deep  the carpet, HOWEVER that is the only negative thing I can say about it. The telescopic is great for putting it away. It is light and manoeuvrable. The bottom part where the roller and suction are is also just the right side, not too big, not too small. It has 2 settings, one for regular and one for the hose only, which is cool because on my last vacuum when I used the hose, dust would get spit out and it was gross. The hose and cord are decent lengths. I like the no bag feature, just make sure you put the filter in a plastic bag when you go to clean it to avoid getting that fine dust everywhere. It works pretty well on tile floors and rugs (doesn't suck the edges up). For a space without too much traffic it is great but if you really need powerful carpet suction, this may not be a great choice because it seems to only get the carpet superficially.

Eureka Optima Vacuum Sucks and not in a Good Way!

Overall

Rated 1 out of 5

I needed a vacuum and this Eureka Optima looked like a winner on paper---It was very lightweight, under $60 and supposedly had great sucking power. I was very impressed the first few times I used it. It did seem to do a great job of sucking up everything from the floor. In fact, it got several things that I did not move fast enough. That was still okay because nothing got stuck...

Then after about three months of use, the vacuum made a funny noise and the sucking capacity diminished. I had not gone over any area of high traffic or anything so I just cleaned it out and put it away. When I used it again, it did not suck up anything anymore.

I took that vacuum back and got another. The results were the same. It worked great at first, but stopped working within a few months. There is a reason why this vacuum is so cheap...it sucks!

Best little machine!

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

First off we were looking for something that was fairly cheap, but would still work good. We have kids and pets so there was always something on the carpet/floor. My friend happened to have this and i saw how good it worked so we also bought one. It has GREAT suction, the hose extends well. The handle can also be adjusted which makes it perfect for the kids to use and even my taller husband. It works out for everyone in the family. Its also not as noisy as some i have heard in the past. I also used it on the hard word floors to pick up crumbs and pet hairs. The only problem we had with this is the container can fill up fast so it needs to be emptied often and the brush gets tangled with animal hairs then it dont turn, but all we do is pull them off like you would a normal hairbrush and its back to its great self! I would tell everyone to get this.

Average rating

Overall

Rated 3 out of 5

I needed a new vacuum so searched one of my favorite stores (Amazon) for an affordable and lightweight upright.  I ran across this one and the reviews were pretty good.  I like the unique color (very different from the traditional black that most vacuum's are).  I like the adjustable heights.  I like that it's very lightweight (I was pregnant at the time of purchase and it's very hard pushing around a heavy vacuum cleaner).  My son who was 11 at the time fell in love with it and ran it for hours I think sucking up dirt around the baseboards. :)  But later I realized he had not turned off the brush roll and had run over the cord with it running and had cut the po...

The Eureka Optima 431BX Vacuum Sucks!!! and it's a good thing!!!

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

I picked this vacuum up from Lowe's for an excellent price. I was in the market for a vacuum as my previous one was old and overused. Installation was pretty easy and the directions were straightforward. The first time I vacuumed my carpets, the entire container filled with dust balls. I was quite impressed. Cleaning out the container is easy...but gross. You just press a button to remove the container, twist the top and pour it upside down. The filter will get covered with dust too, so I usually just take a kleenex to clean it up. I really like the ease from switching from the floor vacuum to the hose. You just turn a dial to switch between the two. The vacuum itself is kind of heavy but it is fairly easy to move. It's powerful enough for my needs and the hose can stretch pretty far. I needed an easy to use vacuum that worked well. The Eureka Optima definitely fil the bill.

The Eureka Optima is a great value!

Overall

Rated 5 out of 5

We have had our Eureka Optima for about 5 years now and it has been fantastic. We originally got it when we were first married and living in an apartment. This is probably its "ideal" use. It is great for small apartmens or dorm rooms when there really isnt a ton of carpet to vacuum all the time. It is really lightweight and well designed. It is a fun color and shape. The handle adjusts to different heights and it is easy to carry it to multiple levels if needed. I have always been impressed with its suction and long term use considering how cheap it was initially. The only con that I can think of is that the filters clog up easily and are difficult to find. We have been able to extend the life of them though by using a dull knife to scrape the dirt/dust from the grooves (an old toothbrush works great as well.) Overall, I would (and have) highly recommend this vacuum.

Do NOT buy this vacuum!

Overall

Rated 1 out of 5

I thought this would be a great vacuum for the amount of vacuuming I do, but it couldn't even handle that! The first place I used this vacuum (about 3 years ago) was a house with all wood floors except the dining room.  I only used the vacuum on this small square of carpet for about a year.  I then moved to a 2-story townhouse, and my roommate bought another Optima for upstairs, so I only used mine on our tiny living room.  I then moved to an apartment with wood floors, and only used this vacuum on our area rug in the living room.  After only using it lightly for 3 years, it suddently just quit working.  The motor just burned out.  Interestingly, my roommate (wh...

Love it

Overall

Rated 4 out of 5

I love this vacuum cleaner because it's small and not heavy.  I recently too most of the carpet out in my house.  So, why do I want a big hug vacuum cleaner if I don't have that much carpet.  It vacuums like if it was a big vacuum cleaner.  I got this vacuum cleaner on the after thanksgiving sale.  I only paid $20.00 dollars for it.  I bought 2 of them.  One for me and the other as a gift.  It is so easy to empty out.  I wish this vacuum cleaner was cordless.  I also love using it for vacuuming my car out.  I also wish that I could get it in diffent colors.  The only thing that I don't like is that its really loud.

Perfect for an apartment

Overall

Rated 3 out of 5

I've had this vacuum for over two years, and it still works great. I'm not sure how durable it would be for large homes, with lots of pet and people traffic, but I have an ultra-shedding cat and long hair, and it puts up with me just fine :)Hair does get stuck in the brushes, and I have to make sure I clean it out every 5th or so time,  but I think that kind of stuff is to be expected. The only thing I don't like is that I have a hard time finding the replacement filters. I bought the vacuum at Target, but they don't carry them. I finally did a google search and found them at Best Buy. Of course, you can probably order them online without a lot of hassle, but I figured I'd save on shipping charges... the only thing that would make this vacuum better for me would be a reusable filter.The adjustable handle makes it so easy to find a convenient storage place for it.

It totally sucks. And not in a good way.

Overall

Rated 2 out of 5

You get what you pay for.  Or, in this case, you get even LESS than you pay for.  It seemed like such a good idea -- an affordable, lightweight vacuum for our not-so-big upstairs area.  We wouldn't have to lug a vacuum up and down and it would be so much more convenient for small messes.  Wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong.  For the price, I guess it would be ok for a small apartment with the same flooring throughout.  It's manageable -- if you HAVE to.  However, I'd highly recommend taking a step up and getting a vacuum that will actually work on different types of flooring and that SUCKS rather than blows.